Chapter 77

Yara felt this was a great opportunity. If the Innate Nation could somehow find a method for people to unlock the Mana Manipulation skill and form a Mana Body without having a Mana pool of several million, their military might would skyrocket.

Unfortunately, the few experts who had formed a Mana Body kept their lips sealed, afraid of their enemies gaining a Mana Body of their own. Thankfully, Yara had William Frisk. With Frisk’s genius and innate ability, all scientific problems were his to solve.

Without delay, Yara attempted to contact him through the magic tablet. Once, twice, thrice. Only after the sixth attempt did Frisk answer. “For System’s sake, what is it? Didn’t I tell you I’m in seclusion researching arrays?”

Yara took a breath to hold back her temper. “It’s almost been four months. Haven’t you studied long enough?”

“Huh, four months? The time acceleration array must’ve malfunctioned….” Frisk muttered.

“I have something- wait, what? Time acceleration? Explain,” Yara demanded, caught off guard.

“Ah, it’s nothing much,” Frisk chortled. “I happened to discover an array that accelerated time and engraved it on a Pocket Dimension to use as my personal research lab. With time accelerated by roughly ten times, I’ve pushed my array skill to 929. Oh, but this array consumes a lot of Mana. A single Mana Reactor could only accelerate time by ten times. Uh, by that point, the Pocket Dimension showed signs of collapsing, so I didn’t push it further.”

There was too much information for Yara to process. Frisk’s array skill went from level 500 to 929 in four months? Or rather, three years? And he actually discovered a time array? Hang on. Yara frowned, “You’ve been using a Mana Reactor for personal use?”

Frisk coughed awkwardly. “Ah, well, you know how important I am, right? You’d have approved it anyway. Besides, didn’t you let your grandson Key-something play around with one for a while?”

“It’s Keith. And I can do whatever I want,” Yara hummed shamelessly.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Frisk muttered as he rolled his eyes at Yara’s response.

Yara sighed. “Forget it. It’s a good thing your array skill leveled so much.”

“I know,” Frisk agreed.

“But enough research!” Yara announced. “There’s been a recent development. It’s something you’ll find interesting.”

“Hey, are you sure? You know how precious my time is,” Frisk groaned, unwilling to step away from his experiments.

Yara sneered. “Shut up and come to me. NOW.”

With that, Yara sent over her address and hung up, leaving Frisk speechless.

It wasn’t until two hours passed that Frisk finally arrived at Mariane’s home. Probably because he rarely left his Pocket Dimension lab, his hair was long and unkempt, and dark circles surrounded his eyes. As soon as Ridger received Frisk at the door, Frisk asked, “Ah, do you have coffee? I need coffee.”

Ridger rubbed his beard. “We do, though I’d recommend a protein shake. Does wonders for the body.”

Frisk looked Ridger up and down before declining, “No, thank you, any coffee will do. I’m not particular.”

Ridger shrugged, brought Frisk to Keith’s room, and then left for the kitchen. Upon entering, Frisk looked around and spotted Keith. “Hey, is this your grandson, uh, Keet?”

Yara put a hand on her hip. “Are you doing this on purpose? It’s Keith. And yes, that’s him.”

Frisk picked his ear. “Well, you didn’t call me here to give him a checkup, did you? ‘Cuz that’s a waste of my time.”

“You’re insufferable. You know that?” Yara glared.

“You’ve mentioned it,” Frisk smiled.

Just as Yara was about to retort, Mariane walked up to Frisk and activated a Cleanliness Ring. Surprised, Frisk gave Mariane a querying look when she said, “You smelled.”

Frisk thought about it and nodded.

Speechless, Yara could only explain the situation to Frisk. The more Frisk heard, the more engaged he became. By the end, he was practically frothing at the mouth. “This is wonderful! Spectacular! I’ve speculated that you could control Mana, but I’ve never found a catalyst. So we need to boost perception, huh? In that case, there are several paths to take. I’ve dabbled with various psychedelic drugs before. I bet I could whip something up that’ll heighten your senses. Oh! What if I paired it with an array? I could modify a Mana Gathering array by changing some….”

Yara cut Frisk off before he rambled for too long. “Frisk, worry about that later. Focus on producing a Mana Body for now.”

Frisk smirked. “Heh, worried about your grandson? Fine, fine. I’m more interested in that, anyway.”

Frisk strolled up to the side of Keith’s bed, pulled out a chair from his inventory, and sat down. “So, grandson, I suppose I have to work with you for a while. Let me ask you a question. What do you think a Mana Body should do?”

Keith was stunned. He hadn’t even heard of the term Mana Body until two hours ago. How was he supposed to know anything about it? However, Frisk was renowned for his knowledge, so Keith figured he ought to provide an answer lest Frisk look down upon him. Thinking for a good minute, Keith said, “Sir, I think it has to provide a beneficial effect. Something like increasing the speed of casting skills or reducing Mana costs.”

“That’s such a surface-level take I won’t even comment on it,” Frisk snorted, then wore a lazy expression. “Your idea of forming a Mana Body based on human anatomy was good, but it’s too simple. Think about it. Arteries, veins, muscles, bones, tendons, skin, etc. Those all work together to allow you to manipulate your physical body. And right there is the key. Is Mana a physical entity? Obviously not. So we need a framework to facilitate the manipulation of Mana – ergo, a Mana Body.”

Keith was amazed. Frisk had summarized it perfectly. The man had just come into contact with the concept of a Mana Body moments earlier, yet he had already deduced what a Mana Body was, at least theoretically.

Keith started thinking. If you needed a framework to manipulate Mana, how should he begin forming such a system? A moment later, his eyes lit up. “Arrays!”

Frisk clapped. “Precisely! You aren’t as dumb as you look. Yes, what we need to do is form an array. An array inside your body! By the way, where’s my coffee?”